On Two Medical Verses In Yuktidipika

Author(s): A Wezler
Publisher: A Wezler

Page 8

140
Journal of the European Ayurvedic Society 1 (1990)
A Wezler, On Two Medical Verses in the Yuknidipika
141
with that of dcdra as the latter too scems to be explained within the context itself of the passage from the Susrutasamphita, viz. by sachapisya vantasya wa vydymagamyadhar. masevino of one who performs physical exercises or has sexual intercourse immediately after partaking of an oleaginous substance or after vomiting, and by yo wa majary apsasmabhirapa sahasd chardir vd praranti for who unwisely takes a bath in (cold) water after an exposure to heat or who forcibly suppresses any nature urge for vomiting'. Admittedly, sexual intercourse, a refreshing bath, and even killing of other living beings does in fact or can give pleasure, but clearly the aspect of amusing oneself, indulging in a particular action, is 'nocmatisch' not relevant" here: but it is not for that reason alone that Hilgenberg and Kirfel's rendering of vihdra in this Astangahdhaya passage by Tätigkeit is not entirely satisfactory.
Another of the ten topics of Caraka, Vimanasth. 8.68 and 84 already mentioned above, are the characteristics of (< consisting in) physiological parent state etc. which the author explains in 8.95: (utra prakryddin Widvd auvyakhydsydmah 1) tadyatha - Sukraton napraktikalugarbhalayaprakrim, drurdhdravihdrapraktion mahabhatavik drapraktiv ca garbhasariram apeksute. One has, of course, to read
praktim máur sharawiharapraktim." which means the organism of the embryo depends, for its own development, on) ... the kind of food (or more precisely: what the mother takes into her body) and behaviour activities of the mother
This passage it is that Cakrapanidatta may have had in mind when he explains samyagupacaraih of Caraka, Särirasth. 33 yada.. tada garbho bhivariate sa sdtmya Pasopayogad arogo Mivardhare sarnyagupacdrait copacaryamdnah ...) quite convincingly by garbhahitair dhdravihdraih, and he need not add mdtur, or a similar expression, in order to make clear what he wants to say, viz. that the growth of the embryo is not impaired when the mother takes proper care of it by eating and drinking only what is salutory to it and by avoiding all activities that might be detrimental to it.
In a similar way a dependence is - again in principle correctly - seen between the ahdra and vihdra of a wet-nurse, or more generally a breast-feeding woman, and the quality of her milk; d. e.g. Susruta, Sarirasth. 10:32ff.:
dhdtryds i gurubhir bhojyair visamair dosalais fatha dosa dele prakupyanti tatah stanyair pradusari 11 mishaharaviharinyd dusja vaiadayah striyah disayani payas tena farina wadhayah fitoh 11
bhavani kufalas tarpus ca bhisak samyag vibhāvayet. Here too vihara is dearly not used in the meaning of 'pleasure' or 'amusement', and therefore one will accept K.K. Bhishagratna's rendering as (basically) correct, viz. 'of
woman, vitiated owing to injudicious and intemperate eating and living. His interpretation of minhyd is also quite convincing, and he, of course, starts from the assumption that this member of the compound has likewise to be construed with vihdra 100 - as explicitly stated by Gayadasa on the passage from the Susrutasamhita just quoted At Astängahrdaya, Uttarasth. 1.17ab the following recommendation is met with:
hithdravihdrena yaindd upacarec ca te (i.c. the two wet-nurses one should employ if the mother herself is not able to feed her baby). The translation proposed by Hilgenberg and Kirfel" diese pllege man sorgfältig mit zuträglicher Nahrung und Erholung' is somewhat problematic, apparently they did not recognize that hita qualifies Whara as well as ahara just as mityd does in the other cases: 'Salubrious way of living does not, however, mean here recreation' or 'resi, but 'keeping bodily activities within certain flimits in order to avoid any decrease of the "milking capacity or any deterioration of the quality of the milk').
A further and particularly clear confirmation of the foregoing determination of one of the meanings of vihdra is provided by Susruta, Cikitsasth. 30.5 in so far as somavad Ahdravihdrau vyakhydiau, said in connection with prescriptions about the use of certain medicinal plants, must refer to the preceding adhyaya (29). And this latter contains a detailed description of the treatment, behaviour, diel etc. of a patient who has taken one of the somarayanes in the course of the many weeks of his developing a 'new body (navdanuh, 29.14). Therefore, K.K. Bhishagratna's translation the regimen of diet and conduct is the same as in the case of Soma' is fully justified.
At Caraka, Indriyasth. 1.3 a number of factors are enumerated which a physician should examinc if he wants to determine a patient's remaining span of life, and among them ahdra and wihara are also mentioned. Although that latter topic does not seem to be dealt with in detail in the Indriyasthana, it is, I think, not unreasonable to assume that the expression vihara is used in a meaning identical with that which it has in the Ayurveda passages discussed in the foregoing and hence to accept Priyavrat Sharma's rendering ('diet, activities') as the one most probably correct and to reject that found in the edition and translation of the Shree Gulabkunverba Ayurvedic Society (his diet, recreation")
For the same reason H.H.M. Schmidt's translation of the compound pdndhdravi harabhesajan" occurring in verse 102(fr.) of the Yogašataka ascribed to Nagarjuna by
the foregoing only correct and to rejectely (his diet,
The tallics are mine
"Op. cit(cf. fo.72), p.518.
Op. cit. (d. In.75), p.541
On this term and the semantic theory with which it is connected, cf. K. Hollmann, Der Injunktivim Vede, Heidelberg 1967. pp37 TML Hilgenberg and W. Kirfel, Vagthopa Asidigendaye topluid.,Leiden 1991, p.270.
According to Cakrapnidatta prakse is here equivalent to srabhde.
This is also evinced by Cakrapanidalta's explanation can gurbhafua hala dosah, m urahan whdraw tatkalinaw yaddosakarunasabhww.
Oddly though this idea is not even mentioned by Cakrapnidaltain is commentary on this passage and therefore se reference is preciber.
Das Yogalate, En Zaimi altindischer Medizin in Sanskrit und Tibetch, trag u bersel, Bona 197 p 213.
An English Translation of die Sushrut Sam
... Varanasi 1']vol. II, p.228
Note that bere pana is mentioned separately, and not subsumed under the